Scaled-back Colorado oil & gas lease sale makes $1M

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports the Bureau of Land Management says 20 parcels totaling about 12.3 square miles were sold Thursday for $981,143, including rentals and fees, in its quarterly Colorado lease sale.

The parcels included land east of Collbran in Mesa County and land in Rio Blanco, Routt, Jackson and Weld counties.

Initially, the Bureau of Land Management was considering offering more than 370 square miles (958 square kilometers) in the sale, mostly in northwest Colorado. But it pulled land due to regulatory questions pertaining to coal mine gas, land having sage-grouse and big-game habitat and other reasons.

Conservationists and others protested the agency’s offering of the remaining parcels planned for the sale, but the agency denied those protests this week.